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The 1941 film Citizen Kane revolves around a group of reporters trying to decipher newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane’s dying last word “Rosebud.” The film starts out with a long panning shot of a huge mansion and then a quick shot of Kane in his Xanadu mansion on his deathbed with him saying the word “Rosebud” before dropping a snow globe to the ground and then dying. Then the film goes back in forth between the upbringing of Kane’s life and the news reporters talking with everyone close to Kane to try and figure out what “Rosebud” meant to him. With that being said, the word legacy comes to mind as one of the major themes in this film with the story focusing on the rise and fall of Charles Foster Kane.
The film shows every aspect of Kane’s
... and good standing among her peers, and led her to ignore the real value of family and its heirlooms. It is obvious throughout the story that Wangero fails to see the value of family other than when they can provide when a convenient boost in her social status. Through Wangero’s ignorance, Alice Walker skillfully portrays what can happen when a person neglects to understand his heritage and latches onto a fabricated, popular culture to reconcile a misunderstanding of his own heritage. Wangero’s craving for peer attention leads her to commercialize invaluable family items that should never be looked at as a source of monetary or social gain.
Thornhill is confronted at the house by a vaguely European fellow who demands answers from him. This usage of the seemingly upper class Eurotrash villain will permeate throughout the action film genre from the Die Hard movies to The Fifth Element. Thornhill, of course, has no answers for the man. While being held captive in a library, Cary quips, “I’ll catch up on my reading.” When they believe his as simply being uncooperative, the...
Citizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles, was an exemplary and ground-breaking work. In narrative structure and film style, Welles challenged classical Hollywood conventions and opened a path for experimentation in the later 1940s. Gregg Toland’s deep-focus cinematography and Welles’ use of low-key lighting are often discussed aspects of the movie. True, these were areas of innovation, but when watching the movie in class I was particularly struck by the use of camera movement, or “mobile framing” as described in Film Art. In this historical analysis, I will take a detailed look at how Welles and Toland use camera movement to develop and challenge the Hollywood style. By referring to other movies viewed in Professor Keating’s class, including The Cheat, Wings, Applause, Double Indemnity, The Last Laugh and Bicycle Thief, this paper traces one aspect of innovation and diffusion in the movie many call the greatest film ever, Citizen Kane.
Throughout this essay I`ll be: define and giving background information on Allport`s Scale, interpreting how these types prejudices are present in the story A Rose for Charlie and my reaction to the story, I`ll also be writing about how this scale applies to my actions and other`s I`ve observed as well.
George Romero's reinvention of the zombie in night of the Living Dead (1968) is clearly a critique of elements of the American society, and the film as a whole is easily twisted into a warped view on the 'American Dream'. Themes throughout Romero’s film, dealing with controversial topics during the time that the film was made, are still, to this day debated by critics and film historians. Themes of racism and war are defined within the movie, hidden underneath the idea of carnal, cannibalistic zombies and over the top heroes who, eventually, succumb to the reanimated; despite their every effort. These themes are colored over and painted to hide beneath subtle references to the typical American Dream during this time, and Romero does quite the good job at it too. This dream, whilst continuously changing in the everyday lives of modern Americans, can be loosely defined as a national ethos of the United States, or a set of ideals dealing with freedom and the opportunity for success - an upward social status that can be achieved through hard work and effort.
What I believe Orson Welles means by Citizen Kane being a “failure story” is, despite Charles Foster Kane’s immense amount of wealth and status due to his career as a newspaper tycoon, he is a man who is very unhappy in life. The story shows how prosperity and power is ultimately useless in the absence of genuine love from others.
The film introduces to us in the beginning a single word, Rosebud.' The audience having just tuned into the movie has no clue what the word means. In the opening music score there are many parallels that can be seen. This includes images on top of images, images digressing with other images, and images that clash with other images. Throughout the film you have these parallels not only with shots, but with people and real life figures. Private lives are not private at all. If you are a substantial figure in the world then people have clear access to you and your life. This goes along with the life of Kane. From his childhood he did great things and his life was publicized by his guardian. It is very important in the scheme of things because after Kane's second wife divorced him he became a recluse and people had that curiosity about what he was doing in Xanadu.
Citizen Kane has many layers in the narrative and use of cinematic language. The character Charles Kane with all his complexities had a very simple longing to be loved. Wells created a film filled with twists, turns and complexities in both the narrative and the visual narrative and this too left a simple visual at the end of Kane's childhood sleigh with the
In the film, Citizen Kane, Charles Foster Kane’s immaturity, wealth, power, stubbornness and lack of love turn him into an corrupted figure. Kane grew up with Mr. Thatcher but takes no advice from him, and purposefully go against his will. Kane lives his own way of life, and unaware of what is "normal" and what is not. Kane’s wealth and power makes him think that he can get whatever he wants just by using the two. His stubbornness does not allow him to admit mistakes, and makes him more and more ego. Lastly, not knowing how to love someone Kane does not have the ability to care about others.
Orson Welles created a masterpiece. Orson Welles created Citizen Kane. Orson Welles created a change. Orson Welles created. Like the series of sentences jigsawed together, Citizen Kane is a film with a plot infused with build- ups of megalomaniac Kane’s life is what rhetorically drew in the audience. Through the realistic relationships of Charles Kane the audience were given the taste of an accumulated story line of who he was. Welles infiltrated the subconscious of his viewers through filming strategies, props and specific song choices. Through the relationship between Charles (Charlie) Kane and his second wife Susan (Suzie) Alexander, Welles painted a film through the progression of shots filmed in soft focus to deep focus portrays
The absolutely stunning film, Citizen Kane (1941), is one of the world’s most famous and highly renowned films. The film contains many remarkable scenes, cinematic techniques, as well as innovations. Within this well-known film, Orson Welles portrays many stylistic features and fundamentals of cinematography. The scene of Charles Foster Kane and his wife, Susan, at Xanadu shows the dominance that Kane bears over people in general as well as Susan specifically. Throughout the film, Orson Welles continues to convey the message of Susan’s inferiority to Mr. Kane.
It is no doubt that Citizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles, defies the conventional style of classic Hollywood films. Introducing a variety of new techniques and cinematography that was unheard of at that time, the advanced camera work, different lighting techniques and use of mise-en-scene, helped fortify several very definitive themes in the film. Being removed from his secure, comfortable childhood home at a young age, it is no secret that Charles Foster Kane carried the unresolved feelings with him as he continued to grow up, seeing as he had to deal with being taken from his own mother and father, and learn how to cope with having been stripped of the family love and assurance he had always longed for. Rather than having the guaranteed
The film North by Northwest has a plot based around identity. These identities are mostly portrayed through visual aspects, mainly in the setting. For example, during the scene at Mount Rushmore, when Roger Thornhill
I really found the concept of the “Rosebud” to be very interesting throughout the film. In the beginning of the film it seems as if it has so much significance, representing Charles Foster Kane’s last words. However throughout the next parts of the film it seems to decimate in importance until it is finally revealed that “Rosebud” is actually just the name of the sled that Kane would use when he was young. While this may be where the film ends I still believe that the “rosebud” carries a greater importance and meaning for Charles Foster Kane and the film as a whole. In addition, another riveting aspect of the film to me was the role cinematography played in the developing the overall plot of the film. The use of deep focus cinematography added
An influential person and his downfall. That may be one of the best ways to describe Orsen Wells’ film Citizen Kane. Kane wants to have control of everything, but what happens, everything gets out of his hand. He loses everything. This analysis evaluates if Kane’s life passes the Aristotelian definition of tragedy.